Charlemagne’s Survey of the Holy Land: Wealth, Personnel, and Buildings of a Mediterranean Church between Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Humanities) - Hardcover

McCormick, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 088402363X ISBN 13: 9780884023630

Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2011

Synopsis

Michael McCormick rehabilitates a neglected source from Charlemagne’s revival of the Roman empire: the report of a fact-finding mission to the Christian church of the Holy Land. It preserves the most detailed statistical portrait before the Domesday Book of the finances, monuments, and female and male personnel of any major Christian church.

About this title

About the Author

Michael McCormick is Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History at Harvard University.

Review

At its worst, microhistory is merely antiquarian button counting. But at its best, as exemplified here, small things serve as touchstones for studies of wider-ranging significance. McCormick examines the Basel Roll, a ninth-century manuscript relating the information gathered by envoys of Charlemagne, who inquired into the financial needs of churches in and around Jerusalem. The roll preserves three documents that provide personnel numbers and sizes of building roofs in area churches and monasteries, as well as partial annual expenditures for the patriarch of Jerusalem...McCormick shows that the Jerusalem church had shrunk since late antiquity; that contemporary Frankish houses were larger and richer; and that Einhard did not exaggerate Charlemagne's interest in faraway Christian communities. Among the many strengths of the book is the full-size facsimile of the Basel Roll included as a stand-alone poster. (C. J. Chandler Choice 2012-11-01)

Edition details

• Publisher: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 088402363X
• ISBN 13: 9780884023630
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 310